SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un touted a newly built street of flats for families of soldiers killed supporting Russia’s war against Ukraine, state media reported Monday, with photos showing him accompanied by his daughter.
North Korea has deployed thousands of troops to fight for Russia, according to South Korean and Western intelligence agencies, and Seoul has estimated that around 2,000 have been killed.
Analysts say North Korea is receiving financial aid, military technology and food and energy supplies from Russia in return.
“The new street has been built thanks to the ardent desire of our motherland that wishes that... its excellent sons, who defended the most sacred things by sacrificing their most valuable things, will live forever,” Kim said in a speech released by the official Korean Central News Agency.
The report on Monday did not mention Russia, but Kim last week pledged to “unconditionally support” all of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s policies and decisions.
“Before their death, the heroic martyrs must have pictured in their mind’s eye their dear families living in the ever-prospering country,” he added.
Photos released by KCNA show Kim touring the new homes built for the families on Saeppyol Street, alongside his teenage daughter Ju Ae, widely viewed as his heir apparent.
Seoul’s spy agency said last week she had now been clearly “designated as a successor,” citing her participation in high-profile events with her father.
One photo shows Kim speaking with what appeared to be the family members of a fallen soldier on a sofa, his daughter standing behind them.
Other photos show families checking the utilities in their new flats.
The rollout comes ahead of Pyongyang’s biggest political event on the calendar — the party congress — scheduled to take place later this month, although the exact date has not been announced.
Attention is on which foreign and domestic policy directions Kim will declare to set the country’s course, as well as whether Ju Ae will be given any official party titles.
The timing of the street inauguration is a “highly calculated political move to justify its soldier deployment” ahead of the party congress, Hong Min, an analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification, told AFP.
“It visualizes the state providing concrete compensation to the families of fallen soldiers... as a symbolic showcase,” he said.
Kim unveils homes for kin of North Korean troops killed aiding Russia: KCNA
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Kim unveils homes for kin of North Korean troops killed aiding Russia: KCNA
- North Korea has deployed thousands of troops to fight for Russia, according to South Korean and Western intelligence agencies
Trump ‘very disappointed’ with UK’s Starmer for blocking use of air bases, Telegraph says
- UK PM then said bases could be used in “defensive” operations
- Trump says it took “too long” for Starmer to change his mind
LONDON: Donald Trump said he was “very disappointed” with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer for not allowing the US to use the Diego Garcia air base to carry out strikes on Iran, the Daily Telegraph quoted the US president as saying in an interview.
Britain had reportedly initially denied the US permission to conduct air strikes from its bases, but on Sunday evening Starmer said he was accepting a request for their use in any “defensive” strikes the US wanted to make against Iranian targets.
In an interview published on Monday Trump told the British newspaper that it took “too long” for Starmer to change his mind.
“That’s probably never happened between our countries before,” he told the Telegraph, adding: “It sounds like he was worried about the legality.”
Trump said Starmer should have approved from the get-go the American use of Diego Garcia — a strategically important US-UK air base in the Indian Ocean — saying Iran was responsible for killing “a lot of people from your country.”
Britain was not involved in the joint US-Israel air strikes on Iran that killed the country’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Saturday.
Since attacks on Iran started on Saturday, Iran has been targeting Gulf countries with missiles, and on Sunday an Iranian-made drone hit Britain’s RAF Akrotiri base in Cyprus, causing limited damage and no casualties.
Trump said it was “useful” that the US would now be able to launch operations from Diego Garcia, as he also criticized a deal Starmer has made over the sovereignty of the Chagos Islands, where Diego Garcia is based.
